House:

We sold our house and invested the money in the hope that when we return, it will have earned enough for us to buy a small place in the country. This was not a difficult decision for us, as we would have moved to a smaller house sooner rather than later. The hardest part of selling to come here was getting rid of our furniture, as we had purchased most of it during our first years of marriage - and it was part of us.

We kept most of the electrical appliances and soft furnishings etc. so we do not have the expense of buying on our return. Wullie's sister kindly offered us space in her loft, which we gladly accepted. Some no-electrical/software items we shipped for use here.

Shipping:

As our Fifth wheel was going to be our home for the next 2/3 years we wanted to take as many personal/useful things with us as possible - this meant shipping them across the pond.

We contacted several agents for quotes and chose one from Aberdeen. We made out an itinerary so they could determine what size create we would require
This is not an easy task knowing the size of our RV was going to be tiny compared with our house, and trying to take only the things we would use and the clothes we would wear, (we got this part woefully wrong).

Clothes - don't make the same mistake as we did! get rid of all those 'dressy up things' - it's casual all the way here. 80% of the time we wear shorts, sandals and walking boots - we have trousers, skirts, jumpers, coats and shoes with us that have never been on since our arrival.
Household goods - ship only the things you know you will need/use - why buy here when you have them already. But also remember you have limited space.
Bedding - 95% of the beds in RV's are queen size, so only ship bedding if you already have that size. Linen is a reasonable price here.
Literature - Wullie had accumulated so much literature/books on hiking in Oregon & Washington, RVing, plus thriller books we nearly needed a crate for these alone. As it was we carried quite a few with us in case the shipment did not arrive in time (a wise move). We also made sure we packed those games to play in the evenings, like dominoes etc

When you get a quote from the Shipping Agent check if the delivery time they quote is accurate or just an estimate. We were quoted 6 weeks and it took nearly 12 weeks. This meant the shipment had not arrived when we were ready to take to the road - we had to buy things that were in transit. If we had known this we would have shipped earlier.
It is better to have it waiting here for you, than you waiting here for it.

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